Rep. Doggett: We must assure the resources for prevention

Like the last motion, this onedeals with the real life struggle of so many American families. It may bea family with a sick or disabled child who suddenly find themselves facingbankruptcy because of their lack of access to our health care system. Itmay be a senior with Parkinson's in a nursing home. Or it may be a youngwoman who needs mammography to avoid a threatening health condition.

The last debate we had aboutthis health care issue is as if the people who sit around this table came fromdifferent planets. At least they come from very different lifeexperiences. I see the people that we are talking about it, I talk with them, Iinteract with them. I have a senior come up at a Neighborhood OfficeHours and tell me that the state Medicaid program will cover only three of thefive prescriptions that the doctor said were essential to their health care.

We were told by our Republicancolleagues in response to the last motion, "Don't worry, it's a phony numberthat 400,000 people will be denied health care because we plan to repeal all ofthe Affordable Health Care Act and they wouldn't have gotten coverageanyway." What kind of a response is that?

And then the suggestion that allthey're really doing is scrubbing it down, eliminating the waste, eliminatingthe fraud in the Medicaid program is outrageous. There has been fraud inthe Medicaid program—some of the most significant fraud has been bypharmaceutical manufactures in my state and across the country. I thinkwe should do everything we can to prevent that fraud—but why should the womanwho needs a breast cancer screening, the child who needs a diabetes screeningor an immunization, why should they pay for that fraud that we haven't doneenough to ferret out?

So we get to this motion and thewhole idea of trying to reduce health care costs. I think it's asignificant part of the Affordable Health Care Act to reduce long-term healthcare costs not only by trying to limit some of the growth in the expenditures,but trying to prevent the need for the health care service in the firstplace.

I have been to a number ofevents recently where I have seen individuals who have severed limbs, in somecases more than one severed limb, and are in a wheel chair and it's becausetheir diabetes got out of control, because it wasn't prevented. Diabetesis almost at an epidemic stage in some parts of Texas that I represent. This motion is about trying to prevent conditions like diabetes before they getrun away, before they cost us even more money in hospital costs and lostproductivity, not to mention the lost joy of life and being able to get around.

Just this past weekend, I was ata celebration for the Komen Foundation in Austin who every year puts on theRace for the Cure—a gathering in Austin, Texas and we'll have thousands outthis Saturday in San Antonio. So much of the focus of this race andorganization is about prevention. It is about reaching out and helpingwomen get the care they need before they might develop some form of breastcancer. That's what this motion is about—about assuring the resources forprevention.

It was the American CancerSociety that said a person who lacks health insurance and who develops Cancerhas a 60% greater chance of dying than someone who has insurance. That'swhat the Affordable Care Act, of which this Prevention and Public Health Fundis a part, is all about.

And then there's a question ofhow we pay for it, because we do pay for this motion. We have a number ofprovisions in our tax laws that favor the export of American jobs. Through this motion, Ms. Schwartz closes those tax loopholes and pays forprevention by preventing the loss of American jobs. We have a terribleproblem with the export of our intellectual property because of the incentivesfor loopholes and tax dodges—and some of those loopholes can be closed throughthis motion.